The immediate consequence of the “homegrown terrorist” hysteria was that the far-right-wing Islamophobes (more on them in the following chapter) who had long hoped to capture the national debate were able to do so. They took center stage in the wake of a controversy they generated around the construction of an Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan.

XREF: Connects to broader patterns of how moral panics and media amplification shift political discourse to fringe positions.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 511